Step­hen Haw­king says we’ve got about 1,000 ye­ars left

USA - We’re all doo­med. Un­less we can fi­gu­re out how to get the heck off this pla­net. Don’t be­lie­ve it? Then ask no­t­ed the­o­re­ti­cal sci­en­tist and as­tro­no­mer Step­hen Haw­king. He says hu­ma­ni­ty won’t sur­vi­ve ano­ther 1,000 ye­ars on Earth be­cau­se of, you know, the usu­al sus­pects -- cli­ma­te chan­ge, nu­kes, ro­bots.

Haw­king, spea­king ear­lier this week at Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Union, says our best chan­ce for sur­vi­val as a spe­cies is to lea­ve the on­ly ho­me we’ve ever known and es­ta­blish co­lo­nies on other pla­nets. “Alt­hough the chan­ce of a disas­ter to pla­net Earth in a gi­ven year may be qui­te low, it ad­ds up over ti­me, and be­co­mes a near cer­tain­ty in the next 1,000 or 10,000 ye­ars,” Haw­king said in the speech, ac­cor­ding to the Chris­ti­an Sci­en­ce Mo­ni­tor. “By that ti­me we should ha­ve spread out in­to spa­ce, and to other stars, so a disas­ter on Earth would not mean the end of the hu­man ra­ce.” And the pa­ce of spa­ce ex­plo­ra­ti­on see­ms to be ram­ping up. NA­SA is bu­sy searching for “gol­di­locks” -ex­op­la­nets that might be ab­le sustain hu­man li­fe. Me­an­w­hi­le, Spa­ce X CEO Elon Musk has al­rea­dy laid out his plans to co­lo­ni­ze Mars within the next cen­tu­ry.

De­spi­te all of his gloom and doom, Haw­king did end with so­me po­si­ti­ve no­tes, ac­cor­ding to Bri­tish news­pa­per The In­de­pen­dent. “Re­mem­ber to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to ma­ke sen­se of what you see, won­der about what ma­kes the uni­ver­se exist,” he said. “Be cu­rious. Howe­ver dif­fi­cult li­fe may seem, the­re is al­ways so­me­thing you can do and suc­ceed at. It mat­ters that you don’t just gi­ve up.”